La calidad del agua de la micro cuenca del Río Tingo mediante la utilización de un índice de calidad del agua (WQI) y la identificación de macro invertebrados como bio indicadores, para el GAD Provincial de Chimborazo.

Abstract

The study was aimed to determine the water quality of Tingo River microbasin that goes from the Tingo to Cebadas parish, by a chemical index (Water Quality Index) using 9 parameters and a biological index (Biological Monitoring Working Party) handling macroinvertebrates as bioindicators of water quality. Once the current activities in the microbasin were identified, five monitoring points were established, sampled and analyzed monthly from November 2015 to March 2016. A multiparameter was used in order to measure the physicochemical parameters in the field and the macroinvertebrates collection was performed by using a net type D-net. The obtained data were classified by point and monitoring month. For temperature, TDS, pH, Turbidity, Dissolved oxygen, BOD5 (biochemical oxygen demand in five days), Nitrates, Fosfates and Fecal coliforms was obtained: for WQI chemical index, in the first point there is a water quality of 58,08 with regular category. In the second and third point a water quality of 45,50 and 45,53 with bad category and in the fourth and fifth point a water quality of 58,31 and 54,36 with regular category. This shows that the river water quality is declining due to the increment of human activities especially in the third and fourth point since these activities. By using BMWP biological index, we obtained that the first and second point shows a water quality of 73 and 65,6 with a category of acceptable, in the third, fourth and fifth point possess a water quality of 41,6; 37,2 and 39,6 with a dubious category, which corroborated the data obtained by the WQI chemical index. As an overall result, we that the water quality of Tingo River is regular by WQI index and by BMWP index is doubtful. Thus, the use of this water must be controlled based on the correspond use category to avoid impact on human health. It is recommended that the Environmental Management Department develop studies along of the year in order to obtain more and improved information in different seasons.